- Aug 25, 2013
- 54
- 10
Thanks to this site and many of you on the forums, I have successfully completed my first smoker. I just fired it up with some cherry wood and I plan on smoking my first chicken.
At temps above 325º your skin should crisp up pretty darn good. If you have time, try air drying the bird after rubbing it. Place it on a rack in the fridge for 8 hours or so, not covered. Another trick is to removed the pot from the base of the mini. put the grate right on the coals and direct grill the bird for a few minutes. That's one of the neat things about the mini!Final product. The skin wasn't crispy as I wanted it to be. Will have to experiment a little more or read up in how to get it crisp. But overall turned out great. Lots of fuel left to keep it going for a couple more hours.
I air dried it for about 4 hours in the fridge before running the skin with butter. I put the chicken directly on the coals afterwards, but the flare ups were crazy and I just kept pulling it off so it wouldn't look awful. I think i'll try some chicken thighs tonight at 325-350 the whole way through.
At temps above 325º your skin should crisp up pretty darn good. If you have time, try air drying the bird after rubbing it. Place it on a rack in the fridge for 8 hours or so, not covered. Another trick is to removed the pot from the base of the mini. put the grate right on the coals and direct grill the bird for a few minutes. That's one of the neat things about the mini!
So one thing that I don't do is to rub oil or butter on the skin. I go pretty straight, just rub and go. All of those photos I posted I didn't air dry because I was short on time. Those were straight out of the fridge rinsed rubbed and into the smoker. To keep the flare downs at bay I always go skin side up for direct grilling.
I air dried it for about 4 hours in the fridge before running the skin with butter. I put the chicken directly on the coals afterwards, but the flare ups were crazy and I just kept pulling it off so it wouldn't look awful. I think i'll try some chicken thighs tonight at 325-350 the whole way through.